Turkey purge: is military coup a lesser evil than Erdoğan’s Islamism?
by Archbishop Cranmer:
Following last week’s military coup – which is never the answer to anything – President Erdoğan is purging Turkey’s civic institutions of every whiff of opposition, dissent, criticism and minor gripe. It is unknown how many schoolteachers and university lecturers were driving tanks and flying F-16s threateningly over the Bosphorus, so 15,200 have been summarily suspended, and 1,577 university deans have been resigned. Teachers, of course, are among the most murderous of professions: their insidious progressive ideology corrupts the young, foments suspicion and threatens the conservative order. Far better to sack them all and appoint orthodox state educators, especially if you want to institute a new theo-political order of rights, peace and prosperity.
Around 50,000 have been suspended or detained since the coup attempt. It is unknown how many of these will receive a fair trial given that they include 2,745 judges. It’s probably easier to accuse them all of sedition or membership of a terrorist organisation, and re-institute the death penalty. Fethullah Gulen had no idea he had so many loyal disciples, every one of whom must be rooted out and ‘dealt with’. But organising a dangerous coup in Turkey while you’re supping iced tea in Pennsylvania isn’t really cricket, is it? No wonder President Erdoğan has applied to the US State Department have him extradited – to be tried fairly, of course. If they can find a judge to preside.
The speed and efficiency of all these arrests, sackings and suspensions rather suggests that Erdoğan already had a little list. If he didn’t, he must have found quite a few civil servants he could trust to identify very efficiently all the recalcitrant intelligence officials. And that pesky Religious Affairs Directorate has needed reform for at least 16 years. A failed military coup has to be followed by the broadest of purges, just as do successful ones. They are never the answer to anything.
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